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WHAT DOES THE HOLOCAUST HAVE TO DO WITH CHRISTIANITY?

John K. Roth

You are my Witnesses: Inscription in black marble/granite at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.

At the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., biblical words from the prophet Isaiah – ‘You are my witnesses’ – are inscribed on a wall where it is difficult for visitors to miss them. Whenever I visit the Museum, I stop for a moment to read that ancient text, which expresses an expectation, a commandment, and a fact all at once. Those simple but immensely challenging words make me think about my Christian identity. Specifically, Isaiah’s words require me to reflect on Christianity’s relationship to the Holocaust, Nazi Germany’s attempt to destroy the European Jews, and to wrestle with the implications of that event for my religious tradition. Most of my academic life has been devoted to studying the Holocaust. Frequently I am asked how I became involved in that work, which has been my passion for more than twenty-five years. Sometimes people ask, ‘Are you Jewish?’ perhaps assuming, mistakenly, that dedicated attention to Holocaust history is something that only Jews are likely to pursue. To the question ‘Are you Jewish?’

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‘The post-Holocaust condition that is most necessary for us Christians is a soul-searching that leads us to ask: What should it mean for me, for us, to be Christian after Auschwitz?’

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CONFRONTING THE HOLOCAUST

I would be glad and proud to answer yes, but my identity is different. I have immersed myself in a study of the Holocaust, or the Shoah as it is called in Hebrew, because my Christian identity (indeed, I believe anyone’s identity as a Christian) is linked to that catastrophe. As I explain what I mean, I also want to suggest how we Christians might re-identify ourselves in a post-Holocaust situation and how we might do so in ways that would give our tradition greater integrity, an integrity that depends in so many ways on solidarity with Jewish tradition, Israel, and the Jewish people. To develop those ideas, follow me from the entry hall in the Holocaust Museum, where Isaiah’s words are inscribed, to a smaller but even more solemn place within the Museum, a circular space ‘The discovery that our traditions

called the Hall of Remembrance. The names of places can be found around the perimeter of this hall.

have sanctioned contempt for

Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Majdanek – three of the Nazi killing centers on Polish soil where Jews were

the other and that the inheritance

gassed – are among them. The Hall of Remembrance also includes places for memorial candles to

lives on in us delivers a jolt to the

be lit. They honor the six million Jewish children, women, and men who were killed, one by one, in

system. The convulsion shakes

camps of death and destruction. Opposite the entry of the circular Hall of Remembrance, an eternal

the foundations of the faith. A world which once appeared certain and dependable is rocked by doubt and distrust. A

flame burns where soil from camps in Poland, Germany, and other countries has been deposited. Biblical words appear on the circular walls of the Hall of Remembrance. Shared by Jews and Christians, the three passages from the Hebrew Bible can be read in different sequences, depending

dreadful sense of loss is almost

on how one’s eyes follow the arc that contains them. Consider those three passages (one from

inevitable. Some people respond

Genesis, the other two from Deuteronomy) as guideposts for deepening our thinking about identity,

to this disruption by withdrawing

integrity, and being a witness, especially as those ideas relate to post-Holocaust Christian life.

into familiar patterns and tightening their defensive positions. Others yield to despair and abandon the tradition. The challenge is to navigate a path

The first biblical quotation says this: ‘And the Lord said, ‘What have you done? Listen, your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.”’ Those words remind us that witnesses are those who have seen or heard something. They are people who are called to testify. They furnish evidence. Often, they sign their names to documents to certify an event’s occurrence or a statement’s truth. So

through the uncertainty, to hold

when one reads that verse from the Genesis story of Cain and Abel, God’s question calls for

onto the questions as the old

testimony and for bearing witness.

answers flag, and finally to risk and adventure into uncharted theological terrain.’ Christopher Leighton, ‘Strategies for the Jewish-Christian Encounter: The

A Christian who contemplates those words (‘What have you done?’) in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum setting must do some soul-searching about identity and integrity, for the Holocaust’s history testifies to a disturbing fact, namely, that while Christianity was not a sufficient condition for the Holocaust, nevertheless, it was a necessary condition for that disaster. That statement does not mean that Christianity caused the Holocaust.

Nevertheless, apart from

Baltimore Experiment’ in Visions of

Christianity, the Shoah is scarcely imaginable because Nazi Germany’s targeting cannot be explained

the Other: Jewish and Christian

apart from the anti-Jewish images (‘Christ-killers,’ willfull blasphemers, unrepentant sons and

Theologians Assess the Dialogue,

daughters of the Devil, to name only a few) that have been deeply rooted in Christian practices.

ed. Fisher.

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WHAT DOES THE HOLOCAUST HAVE TO DO WITH CHRISTIANITY

Existing centuries before Nazism, Christianity’s negative images of Jews and Judaism – supported by the institutions and social relationships that promoted those stereotypes – played key parts in

For Further Reading

bolstering the racial and genocidal antisemitism of

Marcia Sachs Littell and Sharon

Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich.

Weissman Gutman, eds. Liturgies

There can be no doubt about it: Christianity’s

on the Holocaust: An Interfaith

essential

Anthology. Revised edition.

background, preparation, and motivation for the

Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press

anti-Jewish

elements

provided

International, 1996.

Holocaust that happened when Germans and their collaborators carried out the ‘Final Solution’ of the

John K. Roth and Michael

so-called Jewish question. ‘What have you done?’

Berenbaum, eds. Holocaust:

God’s question to Cain challenges post-Holocaust

Religious and Philosophical

Christians, too.

Implications. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 1989.

The second biblical quotation in the Hall of Remembrance at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum says this: ‘Keep these words

A debate between Jewish rabbis and clergymen who had converted from Judaism about the validity of the Jewish Talmud. Woodcut by Johann von Armssheim. Printed by Konrad Dinckmut. Ulm, Germany, 1483.

that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.’ Those words from

Richard L. Rubenstein and John K. Roth. Approaches to Auschwitz: The Holocaust and Its Legacy. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1987.

the Hebrew Bible are inscribed above the eternal flame that burns in the Hall of Remembrance near the spot where soil from the Nazi death camps has been deposited. In that place, standing before

Ekkehard Schuste, and Reinhold

those words can and should make deep impressions upon a Christian. Those impressions involve,

Boschert-Kimmig. Hope Against Hope: Johann Baptist Metz and Elie

once again, identity, integrity, and being a witness. The words inscribed from Deuteronomy are calls to remember. Such calls are crucial because the Jewish saying is true when it proclaims that in memory lies the redemption of the world. That

Wiesel Speak Out on the Holocaust. Translated by J. Matthew Ashley. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1999.

outlook, of course, is not referring to just any kind of memory. In this case, memory should lead to repentance, to what the Jewish tradition calls teshuvah, a return to God and to a right path. To explain further what I mean, I want to acknowledge two feelings that are important for both Christians and Jews

Michael Shermis and Arthur E. Zannoni, eds. Introduction to Jewish-Christian Relations. Mahwah,

to grasp. First, some contemporary Christians – those of us who live in the United States, for example – may wonder why we need to remember Christianity’s role in the Holocaust. That involvement, it might be argued, took place long ago and far away. It was part of Europe’s ‘Old World’ corruption. In our country, we Twenty-first Century Americans may be tempted to say, things have been different; we

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NJ: Paulist Press, 1991.

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CONFRONTING THE HOLOCAUST

made a new beginning, breaking away from fallen European ways. The Holocaust was not, could not have been, any responsibility of ours, especially if – like me – we live in California, which is about as far away from Auschwitz as one can get in the United States.

‘On the one hand, I have personally experienced Christianity as something basically good. On the other hand, I know that Christianity, my tradition, has not been good to or for everyone, the Holocaust bears witness to that.’

Fortunately, I would say, history will not let such shallow analysis stand. In the Twenty-first Century, very few people anywhere – American or not – would be among the world’s two billion Christians if it were not for a centuries-old Christian tradition whose history includes Holocaust-related hostility to Jews and Judaism, even if many Christians are not as aware of this fact as we ought to be. Remembering can be hard, often painful work, but it can also remind us of other qualities. So the second point is that remembering can take us post-Holocaust Christians back to our roots in ways that remind us about who we are, and who we ought to be, when we are at our best. Here I can clarify my meaning by emphasizing that I was drawn to study the Holocaust more and more because of a collision between two features of my experience. On the one hand, I have personally experienced Christianity as something basically good. On the other hand, I know that Christianity, my tradition, has not been good to or for everyone; the Holocaust bears witness to that. I found myself wanting to know where things had gone wrong, especially insofar as Christians and Jews were concerned. In the process of self-definition, I discovered, Christians had lost sight of their close and essential ties to Jewish tradition. How different history would have been if that result had not happened; how much better life would be even now if those gaps could be closed. These feelings take me back to the words from Deuteronomy that are inscribed above the eternal flame in the Hall of Remembrance at the Museum in Washington, D.C. The commandment to remember contained in the words from Deuteronomy refers to other words that say: ‘Hear, O Israel:

For Reflection Why has Christian history involved negative views about Jews and Judaism?

The Lord is our God, the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your might.’ When the Christian New Testament reports that Jesus was asked which commandment was the first of all, he gave those words in reply, adding in true Jewish fashion that the second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. Then, when Jesus was asked to define who is

How does Christianity need to

one’s neighbor, he told the parable of the Good Samaritan, which summarizes about as well as any

change to remove these elements in

part of Christian scripture what it ought to mean to be a Christian. The key point here, however, is that

Christian tradition?

we Christians have our identity because the workings of history put before us a relationship with God

What should Christians do to remember the Holocaust?

that can be understood neither apart from Jewish history nor (and this is very important) apart from the ongoing vitality of Jewish life. We Christians came to know God through the Jewish tradition as Jesus and his followers made

What should it mean – and not

that tradition accessible to us and grafted us into it. As time passed, changes distorted those

mean – to be a post-Holocaust

connections, and, tragically, the full price of those distortions would not be known until the Holocaust

Christian?

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WHAT DOES THE HOLOCAUST HAVE TO DO WITH CHRISTIANITY

scarred the earth. Nevertheless, the basic point was there to be recognized all along: if Christians are essentially the followers of Jesus, a faithful Jew, then our responsibility is to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. As we Christians interpret the identity of Jesus, the bottom line comes back to those words from Deuteronomy that are inscribed above the eternal flame in the Hall of Remembrance, including the way in which they point to God. Christian re-identification after the Holocaust, I believe, can lead to a deepened integrity for Christian life just to the extent that there is a Christian teshuvah, a returning to a love of our rootedness in Jewish tradition. This returning should underscore an awareness that Jews are not indebted to Christians as we are to them. As Clark Williamson, a thoughtful Christian thinker, has put it, we Christians should think of ourselves as ‘guests in the house of Israel’ and behave accordingly. As one’s eyes follow the Hall of Remembrance’s arc from left to right, from words that question ‘What have you done?’ to words, underscored by an eternal flame, that encourage one to remember, a third inscription requires attention as well. Its words, attributed to Moses, say this: ‘I have set before you life and death . . . Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.’

Traditional etching of The Good Samaritan from a Nineteenth Century illustrated Bible. William Collins, Glasgow, 1865

A few years ago (on April 7, 1994, to be exact), Pope John Paul II hosted a special concert at the Vatican. The concert was held to commemorate the Holocaust.

It was a night of ‘firsts,’ which was not entirely a cause for

celebration, because the ‘firsts’ were so late in coming. For example, on that occasion the Chief Rabbi of Rome was invited for the first time to co-officiate at a public function in the Vatican. For the first time, a Jewish cantor sang in the Vatican. For the first time, a 500-year-old Vatican choir sang a Hebrew text in performance. Late though these ‘firsts’ turned out to be, the music at the Vatican’s interfaith concert was moving, and the Pope’s concluding words went to the heart of the matter when he asked the concert’s listeners to observe silence and to “hear once more the plea, ‘Do not forget us,’” a plea rising from the Holocaust’s victims, the dead and the living. Rightly, John Paul II described that plea as “powerful, agonizing, heartrending.” The Pope’s remarks also suggested that no memory can be worthy of that plea unless remembering leads people to check what he called ‘the specter of racism, exclusion, alienation, slavery and xenophobia’ and to act so that ‘evil does not prevail over good’ as it did for millions of Jews during the Holocaust.

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Destruction after the Kristallnacht pogrom. November 9-10, 1938.

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CONFRONTING THE HOLOCAUST

The Papal Concert closed with Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. Sung on that occasion by a Vatican choir, the Hebrew text included these words from Psalm 133: ‘Behold how good

‘Christianity was not a sufficient condition for the Holocaust, nevertheless, it was a necessary condition for that disaster.’

And how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell Together in unity.’ The music, the Pope’s words, and particularly the Chichester Psalms accented a very important point: the value of beliefs (Christian or Jewish) must be measured by the justice or injustice, the good or evil, that they inspire. The Holocaust was unjust and evil, or nothing ever could be. At least in part, the value of specifically Christian beliefs needs to be tested by their contributions to the Holocaust. Such a test leaves Christianity wanting in ways that should make my religious tradition much less triumphal than it has been in the past. Far from being an occasion for regret, however, such changes ought to be welcomed because they reflect needed honesty and candor, and they could encourage atoning work that protests against injustice and that tries its best to protect those who become evil’s prey. In Psalm 51, another text that Jews and Christians share, we find these words: ‘O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken

John K. Roth (USA) is the Russell

and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.’ The post-Holocaust condition that is most necessary

K. Pitzer Professor of Philosophy at

for us Christians is a spiritual and ethical ‘turning,’ a soul-searching (personal and communal) that

Claremont McKenna College

leads us to ask: What should it mean for me, for us, to be Christian after Auschwitz?

California, where he has taught since 1966. Many of his twenty-five books are Holocaust-related,

Responses to that question will still take time to form. Just to the extent that they are formed well, I believe, will Christianity have the identity and integrity that it ought to have. Those responses, I also

including, most recently, Ethics after

believe, will be formed well just to the extent that they focus on three points: (1) the question that asks

the Holocaust. Roth has served on

‘What have you done?’; (2) the necessity to remember that Christians are followers of the Jew named

the United States Holocaust

Jesus; (3) the responsibility to choose life. Doing those things will help us post-Holocaust Christians

Memorial Council, which oversees

to respond authentically to the charge from Isaiah’s text, ‘You are my witnesses,’ by saying ‘Yes, we are

the United States Holocaust

your witnesses indeed.’ Only to the extent that we post-Holocaust Christians make that response an

Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. In 1988, Roth was named U.S.

honest one will our identity and integrity become what it ought to be.

National Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

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